IPSWICH WHITEFRIARS

Site of Carmelite Priory founded 1278. The church and claustral buildings were extended before 1344, and again circa 1396, and there appears to have been a major rebuild of the church in the 15th century for it was rededicated in 1477. Excavations in 1898 located the cemetery and building foundations, but the report is too vague to discern which buildings were present. The church and claustral buildings were revealed during excavations on the Buttermarket Cinema Site in 1988.

The Carmelite Priory founded before 1271, dissolved in 1538. Old maps indicate the site, later occupied by the county gaol "from St Stephens Lane to Queen Street at the south side of the Butter Market" (TM 162444). Layard examined the site after part of the flint and rubble priory wall was uncovered during building excavations. She found some Nuremburg tokens, a metal medallion of the Pieta and part of an ecclesiastical statue. The excavations also revealed evidence and finds of an earlier date than the priory. (See TM 14 SE 30). (1-3)